2020s

Indiewire wrote:
The 21-minute short, produced in collaboration with Apple, was shot entirely on an iPhone 13 Pro, and was just released on the tech company’s YouTube page. The whimsical film tells the story of an undertaker (Yoo Hai-jin) whose attempt to steal a coffin ends up awakening a ghost (Park Jeong-min). That ghost ends up bonding with the ghost of the warrior (Kim Ok-vin) the undertaker was trying to bury. The film takes some unexpected turns, and ends up being a supernatural romance, a musical, and a martial arts film in equal measures.Read More »

If Leonora Carrington was England’s “lost surrealist” the Czech title must surely go to Marie Cermínová, AKA Toyen or “the baroness” to her friends – a name that characterised her remote and somewhat aloof bearing. Like Leonora Carrington, Toyen’s life contained much hardship and loss and the art of both women reflected their intense inner suffering. Toyen knew hunger and poverty and watched those she loved dying around her, one by one.Read More »

A subtle portrait of Japanese director Satoshi Kon by the specialist of Japanese cinema Pascal-Alex Vincent and a dive into a rich work. With interviews of the greatest Japanese, French and American directors inspired by his work.

Satoshi Kon: The Illusionist (French: Satoshi Kon, l’illusionniste) is a 2021 documentary film directed by Pascal-Alex Vincent. The film celebrates the legacy of Japanese anime director Satoshi Kon. The production features interviews with animators, voice actors, producers, directors, and writers who worked with Kon during his career.Read More »

A subtle comedy about masculinity and barely hidden social anxieties, Neus Ballús’s latest delivers a tender look at Barcelona through the eyes of a recent émigré.

Barcelona appears to be a sleepy summertime city in Neus Ballús’s latest feature, a place stranded in a recent past where things move slowly, where most people seem ready for a nap. That is not the case for Mohamed (Mohamed Mellali), a shy but determined Moroccan immigrant starting his week-long trial at a small plumbing and electrical repair company. He’s expected to take over for Pep (Pep Sarrà), who is looking forward to retirement after decades on the job.Read More »

In “What Is Not Seen”, Paulo Abreu subtly repositions the most characteristic tropes of the travel narrative: in lieu of a dialectic of self-recognition mediated by the discovery of others, we find a game of interruptions, in which the constant theme of the mechanisms of vision – within a markedly essayistic device between landscapes, displacements, and voice over – seemingly replaces the utopia of a possible encounter.Read More »

“This is the story of a dog who makes films. Or a filmmaker who is a dog. In a series of return trips between Brittany and Lisbon, the protagonist tries to create a filmed animal diary. On the road to Lisbon, he talks with a Portuguese producer, to attempt to show all the sincerity of the canine gaze in his film. An extensive consideration of the thousand-year-old interdependency between humans and dogs thus develops through the prism of ethology and film. In particular, he calls on the history of cinema, from which he unearths hundreds of film excerpts featuring dogs, who become perfect heroes and actors when they find themselves alone in a shot. In this second feature-length film, Maxime Martinot makes a resolutely film-and-dog-loving animal comedy, a profound and cheerful reflection at the heart of our images of the human and animal condition. And if there had to be a conclusion, perhaps it could be this: humans do not deserve dogs.”
Aurélien Marsais, Visions du RéelRead More »

Quote:
BBC Four Website
One: Living The Dream
How Warhol both glorified and critiqued American culture on his journey from childhood poverty in Pittsburgh to the A-list of New York society.

Two: The American Nightmare
Charting Andy Warhol’s response to major events in the Sixties and how he faced his own nightmare when he was shot by an associate.

Three: Living The Dream
The final episode sees a much more cautious Warhol: a man obsessed with money and security as he reflects on the upper echelons of American society, drag queens and racism.Read More »

A serial killer who preys on prostitutes sets his sights on Diana. As he pursues her, he causes a car crash in which she is blinded and 10-year-old Chin’s entire family dies. Despite her blindness, Diane resolves to take the boy in. But the killer is still on the loose…Read More »

Synopsis:
Sami lives in Jerusalem with his wife and child, and an invitation to his brother’s wedding forces him to return to the Arab village where he grew up. After the wedding, with no warning or explanation, the village is put under military lockdown by Israeli soldiers and cut off from the outside world. Chaos rises overnight amongst those stuck within the walls. Director Eran Kolirin (The Band’s Visit) brings Sayed Kashua’s bestselling novel to life, exposing the absurdist world of Palestinian reality while highlighting human stories of being trapped in an unexpected situation.Read More »